Humans have kept honeybees for at least 9 000 years, archaeological evidence suggests

IT’S long been suspected that humans began working with bees thousands of years ago, but despite Egyptian drawings and rock art depicting ancient bee-keeping, there’s been no solid evidence of our long-standing and ongoing relationship with bees – until now.

Researchers from the University of Bristol in the UK have analysed pottery from more than 6 400 prehistoric vessels, and found evidence of early farmers in, what is now Turkey, using beeswax as far back as 7000 BC. And it turns out that agriculture may have actually paved the way for bee colonies to expand.

With the collapse of many bee colonies around the world, understanding the relationship between humans, farming, and bees is more important than ever.

“Now we know that beeswax was used continuously from the seventh millennium BC, probably as an integral part in different tools, in rituals, cosmetics, medicine, as a fuel or to make receptacles waterproof,” said one of the researchers, Alfonso Alday.

Previous research had found remnants of beeswax in large vessels, believed to be early beehives. The product is collected from honeycombs, and it was targeted in the study not only for its variety of uses, but because its lipids are incredibly resistant to degradation, which means that traces of beeswax can be found in archaeological sites thousands of years later.

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